Monday, March 31, 2008

At the beginning of March, I promised you a finishing frenzy; now, on the last day of March, I present to you my sixth FO of the month: the Swallowtail Shawl. Low light for photos, unfortunately, but I wanted to get this post in today. I am so pleased with this shawl -- I think it's really beautiful.

I was afraid this shawl would be ridiculously tiny (I was ready to christen it "the Swallowtail Small"), but it turns out that I love the size of it. My only regret is using the Zephyr Laceweight with this pattern, since the ball of yarn is 630 yards and this pattern only used two-thirds of the ball, so it's just not the best yarn-pattern match. Other than that, I'm declaring the Swallowtail Shawl a huge success. I love it, love it, love it. I'm also very pleased with the results of blocking with my new set of wires and on my new set of foam puzzle pieces. It's an excellent system.

And I'm feeling like I was going to tell you all kinds of other things about this project, but now I'm totally drawing a blank. Did I mention I love it? Shawls are really great projects, in that they enable a knitter to create something really stunning with a small amount of yarn, like about $10 worth of silk. I see many more shawls in my future. (Any tips on storing them so they retain that nice, flat, just-blocked look?)

I feel such a sense of relief and satisfaction at having moved six projects out of my WIP list this month! Now I'm just working on Ene's Scarf and my second Vinterblomster mitten. And no, I don't want to talk about school. :)